Actual Bills Submitted By Actual Lawmakers.

This Being The Start Of A New Session ... ... we'd like to welcome you to the first installment of Government 101. As a public service for new readers and new lawmakers, we'll periodically take a break from the usual mix of gossip, half-truths and outright fabrications you've come to expect from us to shine a light on a hitherto little-noticed area of state government.

Ready? Good. Let's begin.

See that pile of papers over there on the left side of the page? Those are called "Blue Backs," and they're the official form of the legislation that your average state House or Senate member introduces each legislative session.

Barely a week into the 2011-12 session, nearly 300 bills and many more non-binding resolutions have been introduced (and sometimes even passed) by the currently 202-member state House (there's one vacancy). By the end of the two-year session, more than 1,500 pieces of legislation across the two chambers will have been introduced and only a fraction will ever become law.

Since we had some spare time this morning, we figured it'd be good to take a swim through the huge pile of Blue Backs that had accumulated on a desk here in the Capitol pressroom and try to get a bead on lawmakers' priorities this session.

For the purposes of clarity, we've divided the bills and resolutions into categories and we'll start with what we like to call the "WTF?" pile.

"§ 3301. Driving on right side of roadway. (a) General rule.--Upon all roadways of sufficient width, a vehicle shall be driven upon the right half of the roadway except as follows ..."

For those of you playing along at home, those exclusions broadly include passing someone and avoiding getting killed. (Update: A Miller staffer writes to tell us that his boss's bill actually deals with what you're supposed to do when you're passing a bicycle. This is useful stuff, but the admonition to drive on the right is no less amusing).

Rep. Miller also finds it necessary to enshrine in law a reminder that, if you're blasting away at clay pigeons, targets, effigies of your favorite politicians, you're supposed to clean up after yourself. Wait ... we thought Republicans hated the Nanny State.

Another personal favorite, legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Godshall, R-Montgomery, that would "provide for the limited hunting of Woodchucks on Sundays." In the immortal words of Jean-Paul Sartre ... "Au Revoir, Gopher!"

By now it's common knowledge that the state faces a likely $4 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Gov. Tom Corbett has promised to balance the books by cutting spending and by holding the line on taxes.

So, it only stands to reason that lawmakers would want to hold onto any extra scrap of revenue as they set about this work, right? Wrong.

We came across more than a dozen bills that create or extend tax credits for any number of constituencies. They included tax credits for people who pay long-term care premiums and sales tax exclusions for people who buy electric cars and (we just love this one) a sales tax holiday on the sale of firearms for the week after Thanksgiving.

Next up, it's what we like to refer to as the Legislature's Greatest Hits, or proposals that come back, session after session after session. One favorite from last session: an expansion of the so-called "Castle Doctrine" allowing you to blast away merrily if you believe your safety is threatened or, we presume, if someone needed killin'.Gov. Ed vetoed this bill during the last session.

And there's HB1, imposing what the GOP likes to refer to as "The Fair Share Act," or the imposition of civil penalties in a lawsuit based on someone's actual responsibility.

Some of you may recall that, earlier this morning, we reported on Auditor General Jack Wagner's call for prison reform as a way of reducing costs at the Department of Corrections. You may also recall that we speculated that such efforts would be hamstrung by lawmakers introducing legislation boosting all manner of criminal penalties.

Always a perennial favorite. These non-binding resolutions celebrate hometown causes, designate a week "This Or That Memorial Week," or rename a bridge or interchange after some local luminary. The House, to its credit, has some up with a special calendar where these are dispensed with in one go, making the business of the chamber flow a little more smoothly.

If you think those bills are bad look at These HB171 HB176 HB256 HB275 HB276 SB164 SB198

This is saving money How ?

Question

What does Underlined and bold text mean I'm a little new to this.

Posted By: steve | Jan 31, 2011 9:30:36 AM

Anyone care to tell me how cleaning up after oneself creates a Nanny State?

Creating a "Tax Holiday" on firearms for the week AFTER Thanksgiving? Unless I am mistaken, most hunters buy their firearms well before that week so they can become familiar with them and zero them.

Simple history and economics will tell you, when you punish something (impose or raise taxes) you get less of it. When you subsidize something (lower or eliminate taxes, or, better yet, reimburse) you get more of it.

And finally, woodchucks (groundhogs) should be legal game 24/7/365.

Posted By: Andy | Jan 30, 2011 7:49:23 PM

There is no apostrophe in a plural!!!!

Posted By: Swamp Creek | Jan 30, 2011 2:55:45 PM

John,

C'mon now...after all these years of your rambling political essay's, you never took the time to learn how to read a bill?

Yaaay! RR Day! Thank you DM!

JH

Posted By: Jeff Harris | Jan 30, 2011 11:17:31 AM

Anyone out there have any idea what it costs to create resolutions? Printing, paper, handling, distributing, staff and legislator's time, must cost something. This stuff doesn't just happen. Let's hear it.

Posted By: bilmac | Jan 28, 2011 9:57:15 PM

John, sections underlined in bills are what is new. The bill in question just adds "pedicycles" to the list of exception for drivers to be on the left side of the road.

Ditto Andy Hilt.

Posted By: Steve Miskin | Jan 28, 2011 4:34:26 PM

Castle Doctrine doesn't quite go as far as you suggest here. Even with castle doctrine, as is currently, the standard for readily force is "reasonable fear of grave bodily injury or harm," noting that "reasonable" fear is not just being afraid. That is a specific legal standard.

What the law does, essentially, is remove a duty to retreat if one finds oneself in this level of trouble. It's not as radical as one might think, since most Western states, including such shoot-em-up states as California, currently have this law and have since they become states.

The other key aspect is civil immunity if you have to use deadly force.